Saturday, June 4, 2016

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure: Polish for a Cause

Grey-ce Under Pressure was released at the end of February this year by Canadian indie polish maker Girly Bits as a special limited edition polish-for-a-cause. Only sixty bottles were made, and creator Pam donated %100 of the sales to a personal friend and his family following his diagnosis with a brain tumor to help with their financial obligations during his ongoing treatment. Pam steps up to this sort of plate again and again with generosity and altruistic grace, not only inspiring me to do the same but providing the means as well. I ordered a bottle the minute I saw her post on Facebook.This polish has a silvery grey holographic base that's awash with inclusions: grey microflake shimmers, teensy grey microglitters and silver flakies. On the nail, it reads as a light-medium grey with boatloads of interesting visual texture from the flashy silver flakies and the deeper grey microglitters and flakes, which blanket the polish with speckles and give it a granite-like look. Direct sun generates a beautiful prismatic bloom beneath the speckles, less of a flare than a dispersed, shimmering cloud of blue, green, violet, yellow and pink. In bright ambient light, there's a subtle central blaze of creamy greige shading to nickel around the edges, copiously flecked with dark grey and displaying intermittent gleaming flashes from the silver flakies as light travels over them.Application was fantastic. The consistency of Grey-ce Under Pressure is fluid and light with a thin-to-medium viscosity and an effortless, self-leveling flow over the nail. It is remarkable easy to manipulate with Girly Bits' somewhat bushy flattened-style brush, especially given the quantity of components, which distribute themselves evenly over the nail without issue. Pigmentation is very good, further boosted from coverage provided by the flakes and microglitters. You could wear this at one coat if you don't mind a hint of translucence, and two coats deliver evenly opaque coverage. Cleanup was a little tasky. The microglitters, especially, like to hang around, as you'll likely notice in the pics. Grey-ce Under Pressure dries naturally in very good time to a gently texture finish that is easily smoothed with a layer of topcoat.Photos show two coats of Grey-ce Under Pressure over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

Girly Bits Grey-ce Under Pressure

There's more color to this speckled holo in the sun than my camera could show (but you probably knew that already). I love everything about this fascinating composition! The stone-like flecked visual texture is deeply cool and the flashing silvery flakes create a gorgeous watery reflective quality, while the holographic silver base gives the look plenty of dimensional goodness. There's a dynamic built-in light-play here that looks fantastic in motion -- I've been sitting here twiddling my fingers under the lamp for twenty minutes! It's more ornamental in person than you would think from looking at the photos, and more elegant. You really can't go wrong with Pam's charitable polishes. Not only are they beautiful, wearing them gives a bit of that uplifting, happy satisfaction that comes from the surety that your money went toward helping someone in need, someone specific. Makes your karma happy, too!ttyl,Liz